What Was and Could Be
by remi-it-is-a-girl's-name
Summary: River, Rory, and Amy find a room full of Photographs the Doctor has collected. Can they get him to tell them about the people in the pictures?


**Hello! I'm Remi-it-is-a-girl's -name. I don't know how or why or when Amy, Rory, River, and the Doctor are all in the T.A.R.D.I.S together, but they are! Enjoy.**

* * *

"Doctor?"

"Amy, he'll show up." said Rory. He was really getting tired of wandering around the T.A.R.D.I.S "It's late, can't we go to bed?"

"Mmmm, you would like that wouldn't you?" she turned and kissed her husband quickly. "But I want to find the Doctor first. I'd prefer to know where he got off to."

"Who got off to?" River turned around a corner and walked toward them.

"The Doctor, have you seen him?" asked Rory.

"Sorry, Dad. I'm looking for him too actually." River glanced around. "I don't think I've ever even been here before. I thought I knew the T.A.R.D.I.S better than this.

"Let's keep looking." Amy kept walking, Rory walked on alongside of here, and River in front.

"Not here, not in here, and that's a broom closet." said Amy, opening door.

"No, not here, or here, Oh! That's cold!" exclaimed Rory, River grabbed the handle to the door he had let go of and opened it up to show a freezer.

"Odd place for that." she closed the door.

"River," said Amy. "Have you seen this before?" she pointed to a door. It had wooden panels and was black.

"Never."

"That's, um, that's Gallifreyan. Right?" said Rory, pointing to a sign hanging over the door.

"Yes, it says 'What Was and Could Be'." read River.

"Could have what?" asked Amy.

"Don't know, Mum, let's find out." she opened the door and went inside, followed by the Ponds.

It was a large room. Square, with chests placed at seemingly random points in the room.

And the walls were covered in pictures and writing. The writing was in all sorts of colors and sizes. Some were Gallifreyan, some English, some other languages that slowly shifted into English as the T.A.R.D.I.S translated them for the humans.

"Wow." said Rory. "There's so many. Photos, I mean"

"Yeah," said Amy, "Let's see. This note says 'He drives me insane'. and this one says, 'She likes me, oh dear.' and this one, 'Jack needs to lay off'."

"This one says," began Rory. " 'Sometimes life is awful, just horrid. But today, it's wonderful. And to heck the whole of creation and time itself, I'm going to enjoy it'."

"Me and Atkyri." read River. "I think this one a caption to the photo it's below." they came over and looked. It was a picture of an old man standing next to a very sweet looking young woman.

"That's the Doctor? He's explained regeneration, but wow. I never though about how much he could change." said Amy.

"You saw me regenerate from Mels into this and you your surprised that he used to look like that?" said River.

Rory glanced around. "Hey, that's our wedding picture."

"I saw it. What's this picture?" Amy touched a photo of a middle-aged woman with red-brown hair, a nice smile, and a metal dog, and it fell off the wall. On the back was written. 'My Sarah Jane'.

"Look, there's another one underneath." River pointed to where the picture had been, now there was one of a middle-aged man with curly brown hair, a crazy smile, and long scarf, so long it was cut off in the picture. There was also a girl in the photo

"Who's that?" asked Rory.

"The Doctor again." said River. "And the girl looks like the lady in the other picture. I wonder, Why did he never tell me about this room."

"Maybe he has already for him?" suggested Rory.

"I'm ahead of him this time. Now, why does he have a photograph of Harold Saxon? And what's it doing with these pictures of these men?" She pointed to the picture of the old prime minister, and it had been tapped to pictures of a few other men, most of which had goatees. One of which you could even see his face, it being obscured by a hooded cape.

"Rose Tyler." read Amy, looking at a different wall. "Least, I think." they turned around to look at Amy, she was looking at one of the scrawled notes, it was written in pink and did say 'Rose Tyler', but had been scribbled over in blue pen, in the same blue pen was written. 'River Song' and there was a picture of her.

"Good shot of me. But what's underneath?" River took her picture off the wall to show a photo of a girl with bleached hair, a sort of roundish face, thick mascara and eyeliner, but really, quite pretty.

"Do you supposed that's Rose Tyler?" said Amy. River nodded.

"Yes, I'd think so. But why would he scrawl her out of covered her up? I don't see her anywhere else, not even on the ceiling." Rory looked at the picture, turned around, and then promptly fell over one of the chests.

"Ow!" He scrambled up. He had managed it knock it open, revealing clothes.

There was a rainbow coat, a sweater-vest with question marks, a leather jacket, and cream colored coat. Also, a Stetson.

"There's a man wearing this ugly thing in that photo, up there in the corner." said Amy, referring to the rainbow coat. River opened another chest.

"A recorder, and velvet cape, a burnt out sonic screwdriver-and it's awfully simple-and what in the universe is this?" River grabbed the end of a scarf and pulled on it, and it kept coming out.

"How long is this thing?" asked Rory.

"About eight feet." they all turned and saw the doctor leaning in the doorway.

"Doctor! Um-"

"Pond, both Ponds, all three Ponds. What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"We were looking for you." said Rory.

"Then why did you stay in here?"

"Sweetie-"

"Don't 'sweetie' me, River Song!" yelled the Doctor, he snatched the scarf away from River, and a photograph away from Amy, he shoved both in an open chest. "Get out! Get out right now!" he yelled. All three people who had been in the room left. The Doctor slammed the door behind them. There were slamming sounds for a while afterwards.

"Come on, Amy, let's go," Rory finally said, he took his wife's hand and led her away. River remained behind.

"I need to talk to him." she said. Amy nodded and continued walking away.

"Rory?"

"Yes?"

"I feel awful. We should've figured out that room wasn't for us."

"Amy, it wasn't locked, it wasn't hidden away anywhere. We couldn't have known."

"Well, it had a private sort of feeling to it!" Rory sighed.

"Amy, what can we do?"

"Nothing..."

"Exactly, can't you think about it in the morning? Please?"

"Fine, come on." Amy sped up her walking and tried to push what had happened from her mind.

She couldn't.

* * *

"Sweetie?" River knocked on the door. The banging around had stopped, replaced by silence.

"Go away, River." came the Doctor's muffled voice.

"I'm sorry. But you could've locked the door, you know."

"Go away! Leave me be."

"Doctor, Come out." silence. "Please?"

"No, you please go away." River relented and walked away.

"Just know that we're worried now, okay?" she yelled and kept walking.

* * *

"If you can find your way back, you're welcome now." read Rory. "That's it? That's the whole note?"

"He means that room, let's go!" Amy began running off in the direction they had gone before. It was the next day, at least, sort of. Time did tend to get a little jumbled in the T.A.R.D.I.S.

They found their way back and opened the door.

"-And Shakespeare! Oh I was so looking forward to meeting him, and then he was absolutely nothing like I thought he'd be." the Doctor was talking to River. "Amy, Rory!" he ran over and hugged them both. "I was telling River about this girl," he waved a picture of a black girl at them. "Martha. Oh! And that box you opened, here!" He pulled out of the now opened chests the scarf and hung it around Rory's neck. "I loved that thing as much as my lovely fez-may it rest in peace."

"Doctor, are you okay? You're being more... excited than normal." said Amy.

He sighed. "I'm sorry for yelling at you all, and I'm trying to make it up to you. Besides, it's not fair to you, these people-" he gestured to the whole room and the pictures, "-were like you. My friends and companions. So, any pictures stand out? Anyone you want to know about?"

"Her." Amy pointed to the one photo of the blonde girl. The Doctor frowned.

"Nevermind, then." said Amy.

"No, it's fine. Her name. Well, her name Rose Tyler. She was special to me in a- different way than most. That was a long time ago, though. I was quite a bit different then. I don't even know if she and I would still even get along."

"So, she's still alive?" said Rory.

"Yes. I can't see her anymore. She's stuck-somewhere. Far away. A different universe actually. I can't ever see her again." the Doctor looked distant for a moment, then suddenly became happy again. "What else?"

"The clothes, what are they?" asked Rory.

"They're his old clothes." said River.

"You wore this?" said Amy, lifting up the rainbow coat.

"I forgot about that!" the Doctor grabbed it.

"I'd want to forget it too." mumbled Amy.

"It still fits! Brilliant! This coat is so cool, how do I look, River?"

"You look like you mugged a clown." she said flatly. he shrugged the coat off and threw it at Rory.

"How about you show us your favorite photograph in this whole room?" said River.

"I believe there's rather lovely one of you over there."

River chuckled. "Aren't you sweet. But no, your actual favorite." The Doctor glanced around.

"Rory, help me put this chest on top of that one. Yes, that one. And up we go! Alright, that's perfect." The Doctor climbed atop the stacked cases and started pulling pictures off the ceiling.

Amy looked at the different falling photos. A man wearing a naval uniform. Another wedding photo (with Martha in it) A middle-aged woman with long ginger hair making a face that seemed to say 'Honestly, now?'. A man in a green velvet waistcoat with long-ish brown hair. One of just Rory, hey, she had taken that photo! Then one more of a man with spiky hair in a funny blue suit and wearing red trainers.

"Here it is!" the doctor jumped down and they crowded in to see the picture.

There was Rose again, smiling like she had been laughing. Next to her was a man with dark hair, brown eyes, and a long coat.

_He's really hot._ Thought Amy, _Sorry to Rory, but he's just, wow._

The man had one arm draped over Rose's shoulders, and the other over another man's shoulder. this man was just looking at the camera, like was supposed to, smiling a closed mouth, but large smile. his nose as big, his ear were big, and his hair was short and black.

"The man in the middle is Captain Jack Harkness." said the Doctor. "The other man, is me."

"That-that's you?" exclaimed Rory.

"Yes it is. And god, was I northern! Never thought about it, but Rose pointed out the first time we met that I sounded like I was from the North but-well, that's a different story. Rose wanted this picture."

"Did she now?" said River.

"Oh, yes. insisted. We were in Paris, two thousand and one I think, just having a stroll. I was ready to get back the T.A.R.D.I.S but then someone offered to take our picture and Rose and Jack just both started asking and well," the Doctor sat down on the floor. "I never could say no to her. I said no to Jack all the time, not that he ever listened."

"Is Jack in that other universe too?" asked Rory.

"No, he's in Cardiff actually." the Doctor put the picture carefully aside. he clapped his hands together. "Any more questions, class?"

"What's the door sign mean?" asked River." 'What was and could be?'."

"It means, I can't forget." said the Doctor, looking downward at the photos he'd pulled off the ceiling. "I could want to forget. And some days I do. but you have to live with what once was, and these picture, the chests of things, and the notes scribbled everywhere, they remind me exactly how it was, so I can remember it rightly, and how it deserves to be remembered."

"And the other half?"

"That's just telling me to make sure I don't get too caught up in all of this. Keep moving forward! Who said that? Walt Disney said that! Wonderful man. Say," the Doctor stood up, opened yet another box and pulled out a camera, and a tripod.

"Of course, the chests are bigger the inside." groaned Rory

"Only the one. Come on, get together while I set this up. I need on more picture for in here. One of us four!" he set the camera up and ran to get in the picture.

"Okay, smile! Three, two one."

_CLICK_

"Doctor?" asked Amy.

"Yes, Pond?"

"may I write on the wall?" he thought, nodded, and handed her a pen.

She quickly wrote:

_Hello Raggedy Man!  
Remember me like I was, 'Kay? Don't you dare ever remember me sweeter or nicer than I was. I was spitfire, that's what you tell people, got it?  
Love, Amelia Pond._

"Rory, write something."

"But, fine."

He wrote:

**Hey, hello. Rory Williams/Pond here. I was the one with the nose, and awkwardness, and the beautiful wife. Take care. And to future human travelers: run, okay? Run with him, run from him, just run.**

River took the pen. Her message was short and simple:

Hello Sweetie! 3

The Doctor smiled.

"Thank you." he said, taking back his pen. "Thank you. Come on, maybe we can come back later. But for now, let's go somewhere. Rory! Where are we going!"

"Uhhh, Japan?"

"Excellent! Amy, when are we going?"

"How about Three thousand, Four hundred, and one?"

"Awful year to be in Japan, Oh well. River pick and new one. Amy, you can pick again next time."

"Any time the twenty-fifth century." said River.

"Good! Great! Let's go. The doctor dashed out, heading to the control room, followed by everyone else. He glanced at them, then looked back forward and whispered quietly to himself.

"Allons-y."


End file.
